Because war is always an appropriate reaction
“...drop in magic from the Western leylines, specifically the ones coming from Mt. Doom. The thaumatologists suspect that it's due to volcanic activity, but so far there's no sign that it's going to break through to the surface.”
Sunset blinked slowly, then blinked faster a few times for good measure, looking around in confusion. She was in the throne room, standing to the side of Queen Rarity's throne to assist with court as always and…
She blinked again as thoughts and memories finished slotting back into place in her mind. Right. They'd won a VR game console at one of their last adventures and finally had the chance to test it out. The last thing she remembered was putting on the clunky VR helmet and then… well, it wasn't the last thing she remembered, but everything after it felt a bit detached rather than something she'd done herself. Somehow she'd ended up too far immersed in the game and actually believed that she was her character. And not just herself, but Rarity and most likely her other friends as well.
She held back a wince. How many hours had she been in the game already? Come to think of it, why had she snapped out of it now and not earlier (or, Celestia forbid, even later[1]). Did that mean that the others–
“Lady Sunset? I do hope you are paying attention.”
Rarity's voice brought her back to attention and she blinked a few more times, focusing on her friend instead. Rarity was sitting in her the royal throne, as regally as one could while leaning halfway over to her right to give Sunset an expectant look. She was wearing a light white dress with complicated silver embroidery that she had no doubt designed herself, along with a silver circlet crown on her head that looked simple but was actually incredibly elaborate and set in with a number of pearls and diamond slivers. She had slightly longer hair and the same pointed ears Sunset knew she herself was sporting, but otherwise looked barely different from the Rarity she knew.
Sunset flinched slightly and only just resisted shaking her head to bring herself back to the present. “...I'm sorry, what?”
Rarity huffed. “I asked if you were listening. You are the Royal Grand Mage, so I believe that this falls within your jurisdiction.”
Sunset blinked slowly again, then blushed and turned back to the NPC before them, letting herself slip back into the flow for a moment rather than trying to think too much about the answer. “R-right. Keep an eye on the situation, pull magic from other leylines if necessary and keep us updated. If the volcano erupts or the leylines are in danger of fading, inform us posthaste. Mt. Doom is on neutral ground, so if it's a natural phenomenon then there is little we can do but wait. If it goes on for more than a week, we will ask the humans and orcs for permission to send a research team closer to the volcano.”
She waited for the researcher to acknowledge her orders and leave, then turned to Rarity again, picking her words carefully. “Rarity, I…”
“That's still 'Your Highness’ to you, especially while we are in public,” Rarity sniffed. Not carefully enough then, apparently. “You've been distracted, Sunset. An advisor who is distracted can't advise me.”
Sunset winced slightly again. “I'm really sorry. I, uhm… remembered something I have to follow up on, and…” She trailed off, looking around for a good excuse to extricate herself and figure out what was going on.”
“Run off, then.” Rarity waved her off, rolling her eyes. “Really, you're acting like I can't handle ruling my kingdom for two hours without starting a war. If you have something to do that you don't want me knowing about, then go and do it instead of fidgeting around where I can see it.”
Sunset crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. “Oh really? What if I was planning a coup against you?”
“Oh please, darling, everyone loves me.” Rarity waved off. “Now shoo, some of us have duties to fulfill and it doesn't politick well with my advisor looking all distracted and constipated next to me.”
“Consti–?! Well, fine. Try not to burn down the court while I'm gone.” Sunset huffed and stalked off with a pout, muttering under her breath about thrones and sitting around all day and who was really the constipated one. She hurried a few turns away from the throne room and into a small alcove before taking a deep breath to calm down. This was still a serious matter that she needed to stay focused on, as much as she'd have liked to just banter with her friends some more.
Pulling up the game's menu screen with a wave of her hand, she was relieved to see that at least that much seemed to be working as it should. The relief was cut short by the fact that the option to log out was missing, but to be honest it didn't really feel like much of a surprise. It was exactly what she'd expected from finding herself trapped in a game, and for a moment she was torn between feeling disheartened and just plain exasperated. Really, she wasn't sure why she'd ever thought they could play a virtual reality game without some form of wild Equestrian magic messing everything up.
The biggest problem was what to do about it, or rather who to ask for help. She wanted to think that she wasn't the only one of their group who had managed to snap out of their game persona by now but Rarity obviously wasn't the one and she had no way of knowing about any of her other friends without contacting them and potentially coming off as a crazy elf to someone of an opposing faction.
Not for the first time she wished that she wasn't the unspoken leader of their group so she would have someone else to turn to for directions. Rainbow Dash was a great friend and the very much spoken leader of The Rainbooms, but not exactly the person you wanted to ask for advice unless it pertained to her rather specific skillset (and even then[2]). Applejack was a grounding presence who could come up with ingeniously simple and obvious solutions to problems that someone like Sunset would easily overlook, but she also had probably the least insight into magic or technology and was the one who might have the worst response to her message if she wasn't aware of what was going on. Twilight would be the best choice for figuring out what had happened and how to get everyone out of it, but for some reason she wasn't even on Sunset's friend list so there was no way of contacting her.
Sunset groaned, scrolling through the five contacts she had several times before the flapping of wings distracted her. Looking out the window of her alcove she noticed a large hawk flying right towards her, holding a rolled up scroll in one talon and a green lizard in its other. Alighting on the windowsill it dropped both before taking off again with another squawk. The lizard dropped another scroll it had held in its mouth before scampering off down the wall.
Sunset relaxed again, looking at the two scrolls. One message from a human faction player and one from an orc faction player then. That they were sent to her instead of Rarity meant that at least two of her friends also knew what was going on. If she was lucky she'd have Fluttershy and Applejack both on her side to help her figure out how to proceed.
She tapped the two scrolls to open them both at once, before wincing slightly as she read through them.
Well, one out of two was a start.
~~~~~
[1] It wasn't blasphemy if she knew first-hoof how much Celestia liked to forbid things, and no, she wasn't still hung up on that, why do you ask.
[2] Rainbow Dash was, in general, a terrible teacher and got exponentially competitive the more the other person actually did know. Not that she couldn’t act competitive perfectly well without any prerequisite. Sunset had heard about the time she’d challenged someone with all of three hours’ experience in bipedal locomotion to a soccer match, whether Rainbow had been aware at the time or not.
~~~~~
One advantage of being in a video game was that it didn't actually take all that long to make her way to a small cluster of trees at the edge of the neutral territory between the three factions, where she'd asked the other two to meet[3]. The world of Carniad may look like three countries set around a neutral border area, but wasn't actually all that large when it came down to it. It still took a while to replace her rather impractical court dress with a battle cloak more appropriate for a mage on the move, track down a horse to borrow and make her way there, which meant that Fluttershy was already waiting at their meeting spot when Sunset arrived.
Fluttershy looked about the same as she did in real life even in her green and brown ranger outfit, talking to a massive mountain lion that Sunset figured was probably her mode of transportation. She squeaked and spun around nervously as Sunset came closer, but relaxed a bit at seeing her.
“Oh thank goodness, Sunset. I was worried that everyone else would still be acting like Rainbow Dash. Do you know what's going on?”
“I have a theory, at least. Let's just wait for–” Sunset's ear flicked slightly and she turned towards a low squeaking and jingling sound coming from the south, until their third friend suddenly appeared between the trees and rolled into the clearing.
“Pinkie… why are you riding around on a unicycle?”
“What else am I supposed to ride? A bicycle?” Pinkie Pie stopped in front of them, rolling back and forth slowly as she kept her balance on the unicycle. “Jesters can’t afford something with two wheels, Sunny. That’s a luxury.”
She slipped forwards off the seat and let the unicycle roll backwards to come to a rest against a tree, letting Sunset get a proper look at her. Pinkie seemed unusually small from what she knew about orcs, a good head smaller than she’d been in the real world with a lean, lithe body. Her skin was a subdued pink with a hint of brown and completely smooth, and the way she held herself made her look a little bit like a humanoid lizard despite having no scales or claws, ready to climb up a tree or a wall in seconds. As far as Sunset knew orcs were also bald and considering Pinkie Pie without any hair was even weirder than considering Pinkie Pie on any other day, but she was wearing a bright red and pink four-pronged jester cap with a little jingling bell at each point and a colorful full-body suit that covered everything but her head, hands and feet, so it was surprisingly easy to pretend that nothing about her was out of the ordinary[4].
Sunset was pretty sure that orcs were not supposed to be and were in fact physically incapable of being cute, so of course Pinkie would have found a way.
Pinkie hummed and bounced up and down a bit with an excited smile, her cap jingling more. “So, what’s going on? Another magical meanie? Another thaumic threat? Another fiend against friendship? Do we have to kick some butt and chew some bubblegum because I’m aaaaall about bubblegum.” She pulled a pack of gum from her… inventory, hopefully.
“We don’t know.” Sunset shook her head. “There’s been no hint of anyone else interfering with the game so I’m hoping that there isn’t actually anyone going after us. It might be that the gaming system was just hit with one of the bits of wild magic that have been leaking through the portal. Either way, the option to log out is gone so it seems that we’re trapped here until we find some other way to escape.” She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “And I still don’t even know why the three of us suddenly got back our awareness of all this. I assume Rainbow Dash and Applejack are still acting as if the game is reality?”
Pinkie and Fluttershy shared a glance, then nodded solemnly, Pinkie’s cap deflating a little. “I asked Applejack about sending you a message and she didn’t even know who you were.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll figure out a way to get them back.” Sunset gave them both an encouraging smile before looking around in worry. “It would help if either of you had some way of contacting Twilight. I haven’t heard from her and I don’t even know why she wouldn’t be around with everyone else.”
Fluttershy shuffled her feet nervously. “She’s not in my friends list either. She helped everyone else set up their gear, right? Maybe she just didn’t join the game?”
Pinkie perked up a little. “Oh, oh, or maybe she’s turned evil again and it’s part of a ploy to gather an army of minions so she can subjugate us all!”
“Did you say Twilight?”
All three of them spun around at the new voice, looking around before spotting the shadowy figure standing in the boughs of one of the trees, looking down at them.
“I can tell you about- whoa no no no wait augh!” The figure stepped out of the shadows and immediately missed the branch, slipping and bouncing off several lower branches before faceplanting the soft moss in front of them.
“Who…? Wait, Spike?” Sunset lowered her mage staff, squinting at the young male human with purple skin and spiky, unruly green hair with bangs at the side. He was wearing a simple shirt and shorts as well as a messenger bag that’d dropped right next to him.
Spike groaned low before sitting up and rubbing his head. “Well, so much for making an entrance.” He shook his head like a dog, then perked up and jumped up, grinning at them. “Hey, check this out! Twilight got me a gear too so I can play with you all. And look at this!” He held out his hands, wiggling his fingers before giving them a double thumbs up. “Thumbs! No more whining in front of the can opener for this dog, I can open all the dog food I want now.”
“That’s… a thing. That is happening. I honestly don’t know why I’m even surprised at this point.” Sunset blinked a few times before looking around again. “If Twilight brought you into the game, does that mean you know where she is? Why are neither of you two in our friends lists?”
Spike calmed down a bit and smiled at them, his bangs flopping up a little. “Oh yeah, that. Twilight really wanted to try this whole roleplaying thing with the game. She made her character a wandering healer who goes everywhere to offer her healing services, but since she wouldn’t know any of your characters she didn’t want to put you on her friends list until you’d actually met and, you know, made friends in-game.” He tilted his head. “Or something like that. Honestly, I just wanted to try running around on two legs. The only time I got to do that before was when I chased this weird rabbit through the portals back when we met all you guys.”
“That’s… right, okay. No getting side-tracked.” Sunset took a deep breath. “Then why are you here and why is Twilight not here? How did you even find us?”
“Oh yeah, that. I tracked you guys down after I realized the whole ‘we’re in a game’ thing.” Spike made a face, scrunching his nose. “Wasn’t easy, let me tell you. I don’t know how you humans smell anything with these noses. Or is this one just broken? I didn’t think that’s what people mean when they talk about breaking their nose. Is it?”
“It isn’t. Spike, focus.” Sunset leaned in, putting her hands on his shoulders. “We need to figure this out. For some reason the four of us are aware of being in a game but the others aren’t. We need to find out why it’s us and not them, and how to snap them out of it too.”
“Well…” Spike slowly tilted his head, looking them all over. “I’m basically Twilight’s… helper? Minion? Gopher? What’s the word again…”
“Assistant?” Pinkie piped up.
“Nah, it was something… oh right, knave. I’m a knave who protects her character when she goes around doing her healing stuff.” He pulled out a small round shield and a short sword, striking a pose and trying to growl at them.
Sunset frowned thoughtfully while Fluttershy cooed over Spike and praised him for his fierce protectiveness. “So, all of us are right hands while the other four are all leaders of some kind?”
Pinkie hummed and batted at one of her bells. “So you think it’s basically main cast versus supporting cast?”
Sunset sighed. “I really don’t know. It’s the only pattern I can see, but that still doesn’t help us figure out why it would be that way.” She turned back to Spike. “Do you know where Twilight is now?”
Spike stepped away from Fluttershy and shook himself happily before straightening up again. “Yeah, she wanted to go to the Court of Rarendelle next to meet with Queen Rarity. I told her I’d catch up with her.”
“Then I’ll go and try to catch up with her. Even if she doesn’t believe us about the game, I’m sure she can still help me figure out the magic behind it.”
Spike winced and chuckled nervously, glancing away. “R-right, she’ll totally help with that.”
Sunset nodded and turned to the other two girls. “You two go back to Rainbow Dash and Applejack. All we have to do is keep them out of trouble until one of us can figure out the next step to get out of the game. It shouldn’t be too hard, the only real trouble that could come up here are the other factions and we’ll have an eye on all of them.”
~~~~~
“There you are, Sunset! Go and gear up, we are at war.”
“Two hours! I was gone for two hours!”
~~~~~
[3] At the edge of Destiny Plains, which in turn were at the foot of Mt. Doom. According to the game manual all players had some part in shaping the world they played in, and Sunset wondered if Princess Twilight ever felt this kind of profound yet inconsequential disappointment in her friends.
[4] Pinkie dressed as a clown every other year on Halloween and every other month for various other reasons, and was to this day the only known person in Canterlot who could dress up as a clown and not scare a single child (or adult).
~~~~~
Sunset groaned from a deep well of frustration and exasperation, standing at the front lines of the Rarendellian Royal Army, a couple steps away from where Rarity in her silver-armored battle dress was giving a speech to the troops, waving her brilliant white rapier around like a conductor’s baton. The elf city of Rarendelle clung to the side of Mount Ebony with lots of physics-defying spires, which meant that their army moved down the mountain mostly by foot and only occasionally on horseback. A considerable part of their forces consisted of mages, with the rest brandishing light swords and shields and holding speed and skill as their main strengths.
Below them she could see the orcs pushing their war machines in from the Eastern side of the Destiny Plains, carrying heavy shields and large melee weapons and relying mostly on their raw strength. Chief Applejack was standing at the front in heavy armor, easily fitting the part of a seven foot tall amazon with the massive warhammer she was propping up at her side.
To the South the human army was starting to emerge from between the tall trees of the Whitewing Woods, riding massive beasts, drawing swords and preparing bow and arrow. Commander Rainbow Dash was standing next to a giant eagle, with Fluttershy on the eagle’s other side gently talking to it.
“So… this wasn’t part of the plan, was it?”
Sunset groaned again and turned her head to glare at Spike. “No, this is just about the exact opposite of the plan.” She glanced over to where a pointy-eared Twilight Sparkle in flowing white robes was nervously watching the plains from behind her large healer’s staff. “And speaking of things not going as planned, would you mind telling me why Twilight just glared at me like I’d insulted her and brushed me off when I asked her for help with a magic problem?”
Spike winced, and scratched his neck, looking down and mumbling towards his feet. “Ah right, uhm, that… funny thing, really, uhm... Shntbvinmgc.”
“...I’m sorry, what was that?”
“Oh look, they’re starting! No time to explain!” Spike jumped up and pointed at Rainbow Dash who was sending Fluttershy back towards the rest of her troops, while Chief Applejack thumped the grip of her warhammer on the ground and Rarity pointed her blade towards the orc troops.
Rarity swung her blade in an arc before twirling it, the tip gleaming and leaving lines of magic in the air that scattered into several glowing points in a circle around her. A thrust and beams of light shot out towards the orcs, converging on Applejack.
Applejack huffed and grabbed a shield from an orc behind her, taking the full attack on it and barely sliding back from the resulting explosion before tossing the battered shield back behind her again. She looked up at Rarity before turning and lifting her hammer to bring it down towards Rainbow Dash’s army, causing a low shockwave to ripple through the grass towards the Commander.
Rainbow Dash swung herself onto her eagle, taking flight to evade the attack and drawing her bow with several arrows at once, sending them all flying towards Rarity, who expertly parried them with her sword.
For a moment all three paused and eyed each other in the temporary stalemate before they turned to their troops as one, each letting loose a rallying cry and leading the charge onto the plains, human, elven and orc NPCs following them. The three armies were not particularly large by any standards, but it was still several hundred fighters all converging onto the battleground before clashing at the foot of Mount Doom, dragging Sunset, Spike and Twilight along into the fray and into chaos.
~~~~~
“Fluttershy!”
Sunset raised her staff and blasted an orc fighter away from her friend, whacking several others out of the way with her staff and dragging Twilight and Spike along towards the ranger and her small menagerie of animals. The critters put themselves between them defensively until Fluttershy whispered something to them and they reluctantly let Sunset through.
“Fluttershy! I’m glad you’re okay. Have you seen Pinkie?” Sunset put her back to Fluttershy, both of them holding NPCs away with their staff and shortsword.
“Right here!” Pinkie bounded up to them with a jingle, slamming a surprisingly sturdy ukulele on an elf’s head on the way. She slung it over her back again to pull out several small bombs, juggling them for a moment before tossing them out at various NPCs around them.
“At least we’re all together now.” Sunset shuffled to make some room as Spike and Pinkie joined them, keeping Twilight between the four of them. “Pinkie, what happened?! Rarity said that Applejack declared war on her!”
Pinkie blinked. “Really? Because Applejack told me that Rainbow Dash declared war on her.” She turned her head to look at Fluttershy.
“And Rainbow Dash said Rarity wrote her that bows and arrows are stupid.” Fluttershy looked back at them, then blushed and fidgeted. “O-or she probably declared war on us, too. Rainbow might have just focused on that other part.”
Sunset groaned. “Great, so nobody even knows who started this whole mess but we’re the ones who’ll have to deal with it. Do you think you can give us a buff, Pinkie?”
Pinkie tilted her head, swinging her ukulele again. “I can’t give buffs, silly. Where’d you get that idea?”
Sunset furrowed her brows. “Jesters are usually bard class, aren’t they? Giving buffs is what you do.”
“Ooooh, right.” Pinkie nodded sagely before giggling and gripping her jester suit, tearing it away with a flash of light and disappearing. There was a beat of silence before every NPC around them suddenly collapsed and dissolved into pixels to symbolize their death. A cheerful figure in a deep pink and black bodysuit somehow popped up between them without warning and pulled them into a hug, the eye covers of her mask shifting and moving to convey her expressions. “I’m not a jester though.”
Sunset’s eye twitched as she fought down the reflex to fireball Pinkie’s face. “R-really.”
“I mean, officially I’m Chief Applejack’s court jester. But actually I’m her head rouge/assassin. I just happen to be good at juggling and riding a unicycle.” Pinkie kept chattering obliviously, casually tossing a throwing knife at an NPC that had gotten closer than ten feet to them and was quickly reevaluating his plans.
“That’s rather ingenious.” Twilight perked up slightly from where she’d hidden between them. “You just acted and let everyone assume your class so you’d have the element of surprise with your real abilities.”
“More surprises. Just what I needed in this whole mess.” Sunset rubbed her eyes with two fingers before snapping her head up to blast another NPC back to distance. “So you’re actually a Rogue class. That doesn’t explain the getup.”
“Duh.” Pinkie giggled and rolled her eyes, presumably. “It’s my stealth suit.”
Sunset’s eye twitched. "It's pink!"
"Don't be silly, Sunny. It's not pink, it's magenta. And everyone knows that magenta doesn't exist so it's perfect for stealth." Pinkie bounced off and disappeared again before popping back up on Sunset’s other side, several more NPCs collapsing.
Sunset slowly turned her head to give her a dead-eyed stare for several long seconds, then whipped back around and raised her staff to summon a small meteorite down on a group of NPCs and turn the resulting blaze into a fiery dragon attacking another group. She watched the fire burn for a moment before turning back to her friends with a slightly deranged smile. “Well, that helped. Turns out the urge to set everything on fire can be quenched by actually setting everything on fire. Who knew.” She snapped a hand up to point at Pinkie. “Now tone down on the Pinkie-ness before I really have to burn everything.”
Pinkie squeaked and nodded quickly, shuffling her hand over her chest and onto her eye frantically.
Sunset slumped down a little. “We can’t just wait out the whole war. Something needs to happen before someone gets hurt.”
“Uh… you mean like that?” Spike nervously pointed ahead.
Sunset turned just to see Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack disengaging from a three-sided battle, each backing away to a cluster of their own troops. For a moment Sunset didn’t see what Spike was talking about until several elves behind Rainbow Dash suddenly lifted their bows.
All five of them could only watch as several arrows shot Rainbow in the back, Rarity turned just in time to take a rapier to the shoulder from one of her generals, and Applejack was slammed into the ground by a boulder from one of her own catapults.
~~~~~
Rainbow Dash groaned as she slowly opened her eyes to blink against the light. “I feel like a pincushion…”
“Rainbow Dash! Don’t move!” There was a blur of movement that slowly sharpened into the face of Fluttershy looking down at her in worry.
“Fluttershy? I-I’m fine, it’s really not that bad…” Rainbow winced but pushed herself into a sitting position. “What happened? We were going to play this game and then suddenly everything got all weird…” She shook her head.
Fluttershy gasped, moving into Rainbow’s personal space in an instant. “You remember?!”
Rainbow blinked up at her in confusion. “Uh… yeah? I mean, kinda? The middle part is a bit fuzzy, there was a war or something and, uhh… did I get shot?”
“Ah figure we all got a bit of a hit there.” Rainbow turned her head to see Applejack getting up with a groan, stretching and cracking her back, her forehead and whole upper body covered in bandages. “Anyone mind tellin’ me what truck ran me over?”
“Yes, well, I certainly remember the ruffian that struck at me.” Rarity walked over from her other side, rubbing a bandaged shoulder. “Attempted regicide, I should have him thrown in the dungeon if there was anything left of him. This game is turning out surprisingly painful, although at least it’s not quite as bad as I imagine such a hit would feel outside of it.”
Pinkie Pie jumped between them, looking around and grinning at each of them. “You’re back! I knew we could do it, Sunset!” She whipped around to where Twilight was kneeling and looking through her bag. “Quick Twilight, say something sciency!”
Twilight lifted her head to give her a confused look, then focused back on a roll of gauze and a small jar she’d pulled out. “I have no idea what game you all are talking about. Now hold still, I still have to bind those wounds if you want them to heal.”
Rainbow gasped and yelped as she moved over and slathered some sort of medicinal mixture on her back before wrapping up upper body without warning. “H-hey! That’s cold!”
“Awww… she still doesn’t remember…” Pinkie slumped a bit, then perked up and pulled a battered ukulele from behind her back. “But we know how to fix it now!”
“No concussive maintenance therapy!” Sunset grabbed the ukulele and tossed it away, then rounded on Twilight. “And you! You’re a white mage and I haven’t seen you use a single healing spell all day. Explain, now!”
Twilight blinked slowly, then shrugged dismissively. “I don’t believe in magic.”
Sunset stared at her. “...what.”
“I don’t believe in it.” Twilight crossed her arms and glared at Sunset. “My healing comes from scientifically tested and proven medical procedures and remedies. I don’t have time to entertain ridiculous ideas like magic.”
“You’re a white mage. You’re an elf! Half of Rarendelle runs on magic!”
Twilight shrugged again, packing up her bag. “Parlor tricks that I just haven’t been able to figure out yet.”
Spike shuffled in next to Sunset to whisper up at her with a grimace. “I told you she wanted to try roleplaying her character, so she made it a bit… odd.”
Sunset gestured wildly for a moment before throwing her arms up. “Okay! Fine! Moving on!”
She turned back to the rest of them, frowning contemplatively at Rainbow, Rarity and Applejack in particular. “To make it short, we’ve all been tricked.”
Pinkie, Fluttershy and Spike all nodded in solemn agreement. “We took down the ones who attacked you as soon as we saw. All of them were some kind of golem under a glamour spell.” Spike fidgeted a little. “They dissolved a moment later like all other enemies, but there were a whole bunch more between our own forces that attacked us as soon as the first ones had been revealed.”
Pinkie Pie grimaced and winced, gesturing at the two dozen orcs, humans and elves still left around them. “So even though we managed to stop the fighting, we're kinda running out of NPCs.”
Rainbow looked around for a moment, then got up and straightened up with determination. “Then that means we'll just have to take down whoever is behind this ourselves. If there's a Big Bad hiding in the shadows, then defeating them means we win the game, right?” She grinned, slapping a fist into her palm. “And if we win the game I bet we get out of the game, too.”
Pinkie nodded eagerly. “Yeah, that's how these stories always work! Beat the game to be free again. But how do we find the Big Bad if they're hiding?”
“They gotta be somewhere nobody would go looking accidentally.” Applejack rubbed her chin.
“And somewhere with flair, of course. You can’t be a major villain if you’re hiding out in some hovel.” Rarity hummed thoughtfully.
“If they were anywhere in the woods, I’d have heard about it from my animals,” Fluttershy added softly.
“And I know every spot in the orc faction’s area,” Pinkie chirped cheerfully.
Everyone turned to Sunset expectantly only to see her give them the driest look they’d seen yet, the look of someone who’d been trying to set them on fire with her eyes before remembering that she was a fire mage and was now trying to not set them on fire with her eyes.
Her eye twitched once before she slowly raised a hand to point behind her. “It’s a semi-dormant volcano full of magical leylines called Mount Doom.” She twitched again and spun around, stalking off.
Pinkie winced and raised a hand to stage-whisper, “I think I’d rather take my luck with the robots.”
~~~~~
“Thanks for jinxing it, Pinkie.” Rainbow yelped and dodged into a roll, coming up with another arrow shot at one of the many, many robots that had come out of a previously hidden entrance on the mountain’s slope to meet them. All of them had a single-part volcanic rock body with somewhere between one and six eyes geometrically arranged on it, and either four or six long swaying limbs with claws at the end.
“Sorry!” Pinkie winced as another throwing knife clattered off a robot’s rock body, missing the eyes as it turned at the wrong moment. She looked around, then perked up slightly and calling towards Sunset. “Oh, by the way, did we ever find out who of them actually started the war now?”
Sunset growled as another fireball harmlessly splashed over the volcanic rock, only making the claws glow red for a moment. “Pinkie, this really isn’t the… time!” She brought her staff down to sweep the legs out from under it instead, kicking it to send it rolling down the slope.
“Come onnnn, I want to know now!” Pinkie grinned and turned to Rarity. “I bet it was Rarity.”
“Excuse me?” Rarity huffed. “I’ll have you know that Applejack declared war on my kingdom for no reason whatsoever.”
“Ah did what now?” Applejack glared at her. “Rainbow Dash was the one who just declared war on me, no explanation no anythin’.”
Rainbow bristled, whipping around to them. “I did nothing! Rarity is the one who wrote that bows and arrows are stupid!”
There was a short moment of silence as everyone stared at her. “...y’all mean she declared war on you, right?”
Rainbow blushed and huffed, turning away and grumbling. “Hey, you know that wasn’t actually really me there. Don’t blame me for what Commander Dash did. Also bows and arrows are totally awesome.“
There was another beat of silence, broken when Sunset slowly walked past them and the robots started to back away from her.
Rainbow blinked, staring after her and at the scrambling and stumbling bots that were slowly drooping in front of them. “Is she… melting the magma-bots without even casting any spells?”
Pinkie grinned and bounced after Sunset. “Not every jinx is bad~” She faltered as several robots started to melt and bubble, pausing to bounce after Sunset at a considerably safer distance. “I… think I’ll stop talking for a bit.”
~~~~~
“I think we found the boss room. That's totally a boss room door.” Rainbow Dash looked up at the large, looming double doors in front of them. “...welp, here goes nothing.” She stepped forward and pushed one of the doors open, peeking through before pushing it further open and waving them through.
Behind the doors was a large throne room, glowing with magic veins in the walls and with a single, large black throne at the other end. A massive suit of armor stood in front of it, easily ten foot tall with a massive broadsword in one hand and a silver necklace and crown each with a single amethyst in his other hand, its eyes glowing malevolently from inside the helmet and watching them.
“Well, he's definitely looking big and bad.” Applejack raised her warhammer. “This ain't gonna be easy.”
Rarity rubbed her shoulder again, half whispering. “We can't hold a drawn-out battle. We have to put everything into our first attack and see how far it gets us.”
Rainbow nodded, pulling back the string of her bow. “I'm ready when you are. We'll attack all at once and bring him down in one hit.”
Sunset stepped forward and raised her staff. “The four of us. We're the heavy hitters, any more and we'd just get in each other's way.”
Applejack nodded stiffly. “Alright then. On three. One…”
Rarity drew her sword back, the tip shining white. “Two…”
“Three! Overclock Arrow!” Rainbow Dash raised her bow, letting an arrow fly right into the armor's visor slit.
“Overheat Inferno!” Sunset gripped her staff in both hands, a white-hot beam of fire slamming into the armor's chestplate.
“Heavy Sl– huh?”
“Light of Rarendelle! Point– what?”
Applejack and Rarity both stopped mid-step, watching as the armor slowly toppled backwards and fell over with a loud crash, falling apart and spilling empty armor parts across the floor.
“Guys… I don't think that was the end boss.” Spike gulped and raised his shield, looking around nervously.
Pinkie carefully moved forward, snatching up the helmet and quickly backing away. Looking into it she frowned before pulling out a still smoking candle. “We got tricked, again.”
“D-do you think the real boss is already on their way here?” Fluttershy whimpered, moving closer to the others.
“We just wasted our best attacks on this decoy. We can't take anyone else!” Sunset looked around frantically, swinging her staff around at the shadows in the corners.
There was a soft sigh and Twilight stepped forward, reaching into her robes to pull out a small charm on a necklace. “I… I think if the situation is that bad I should use this.”
“Twilight? What do you mean? What's that?” Sunset watched in confusion, taking a step closer.
“Phoenix ashes. Heals and restores everything short of death.” Twilight smiled faintly at them, kneeling down in front of them and opening the charm to sprinkle a bit of ash onto the ground, putting her hands over it and muttering softly. A soft yellow glow began to flicker over the ashes before they rose up and swirled around her hands, then spread outwards and over all of them. Within seconds Sunset felt her health and magic restored completely, just before the magic slowly faded away again and the ashes dissolved into sparks.
Rainbow slowly pulled off her bandages, then grinned. “That was amazing! I can't believe you had something like that up your sleeve.” She paused, tilting her head. “But wait… that was a ritual, wasn't it? I thought you didn't believe in magic.”
Twilight smiled softly and stood up. “Magic is just sufficiently advanced science. Of course I believe in magic.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes. “Really? Then why did you tell us all you didn't?”
Twilight hummed, slowly turning around and walking towards the fallen armor. “A little obfuscation, that's all. I needed an excuse for not casting any healing spells. They're light magic, how was I supposed to do that?”
Pinkie’s eyes widened slowly. “But the only reason you wouldn't be able to cast light magic is…”
Twilight giggled and bent down. “Hiding your class behind another appearance really was ingenious, Pinkie. I should know.”
“So if you're not really a healer then what– Twilight, stay away from that!” Rarity took a step forward, drawing her rapier.
Twilight froze before slowly straightening up again, turning around to hold up the crown and necklace with an innocent smile. “Stay away from what? The crown or the necklace?”
Rarity grit her teeth, pointing her rapier at Twilight. “As the Queen of Rarendelle, I order you to drop them and step away.”
Twilight froze with wide eyes for a moment, then relaxed and started to chuckle. “Did you just exert your dominion over me? An order that no elf can disobey…” Her smile widened and got teeth as she slowly lifted the crown up and set it on her head. In an instant her white robes turned into a black dress and her colors bled away into deepest purple, her smile now showing fangs. “Right idea… wrong elf.”
Rarity gasped and stepped back. “You're a Night Elf!”
Twilight hummed pleasantly. “Personally, I prefer Swartalfar. A Swartalfar Artificer to be exact. A Swartificer!” She giggled, trailing off when nobody else joined in. “Ah, tough crowd.”
Sunset raised her staff towards her. “If you're really the one who set all of this up, why the Phoenix Ashes? Why heal us right before you would confront us?”
“Why I healed you? A mix of gratitude and insurance, you could say.” Twilight smirked at them and raised the necklace over her head, the amethyst flashing and glowing brightly as her body started to grow and dissolve into purple and black smoke at the edges, glowing purple markings appearing all over her skin. “Gratitude for all the entertainment you provided… And insurance that you'll entertain me a few minutes longer~”
Sunset and her friends stared as Twilight continued to grow until she was almost the size of the armor they'd toppled and literally glowing with dark magic.
"I am the Dark Sovereign... And I will be the only ruler in Carniad!"
“Girls… I think we have a problem.”
~~~~~
Applejack groaned and rolled to dodge another beam of magic, flinching away from the rock shrapnel the explosion threw around. “What are we supposed to do? We're gettin’ nowhere with this!”
Rainbow Dash came up next to her, firing another arrow that was batted out of the air. “No kidding! She's buffed to hell and back, most of my attacks don't even come through and the ones that do barely do any damage through the buffs. And I'm pretty sure she keeps healing herself somehow! We need to get one solid hit in!”
Sunset grunted, holding off another attack with her own magic. “But if we come in too strong we might kill her and we still don't know what dying in the game means for the real world!”
“If we don't do something we're the ones dying!” Rainbow yelped and jumped back from an errant rock.
“One of the buffs on her necklace!” Spike came running up to them, panting and holding up his shield in an attempt to hide from the attacks. “She can't be killed with one shot if she has over half of her health!”
Applejack's face hardened. “One strike then…” She looked around as the rest of the group came closer, eyes lingering on Pinkie for a moment. “Would be really nice if we had someone who can do buffs, now.”
Pinkie blinked, then looked back at Twilight. “Well, I’m not a bard… but I am a jester!” She disappeared from view right before a series of colorful handkerchiefs knotted together came up behind Twilight and wrapped around her, more and more coming out of Pinkie’s sleeves to wrap the villain up in fabric. “I can't hold her like this forever, go!”
Applejack grunted and hefted her warhammer. “Right… I got a berserk skill, my attack goes up when I'm bloodied.”
“Got it. Barbed Arrow!” Rainbow pulled her bow back before loosing an arrow into Applejack's side where it would impact her movement as little as possible.
“Let's show her what we can do together! Rare Blessing!” Rarity pointed her rapier at Applejack, the tip flashing with magic that shot into Applejack's warhammer, spreading across the steel head and turning it into a sharp silver battleaxe.
“Not the kind of friendship Princess Twilight probably meant but let's do this! Amaterasu!” Sunset's staff flashed with black fire that wrapped around the head of the axe, wreathing it in black flames.
“R-right… all together.” Fluttershy took a deep breath before letting loose a shrill two-finger whistle. A roar answered only a second later as her mountain lion mount bounded into the room, running straight at Applejack and slipping under her to carry her towards the demon at speed.
“Girls? I can't hold her much longer.” Pinkie squeaked as the line jerked, one of Twilight's hands burning through the fabric and pulling out just enough to aim at Applejack. The hand gathered magic quickly before letting loose a large ball of crackling black magic.
“Howling Guard!”
Applejack winced but didn't slow down as a spinning round shield came flying right in front of her, catching the attack and bursting apart like a clay disk but leaving her unharmed beyond a few splinters.
The next second they were upon Twilight, the lion rearing up and twisting to give Applejack extra momentum as she brought her axe down.
“Berserk Strike!”
There was a deafening shriek and howl as a glowing rent was cut right through Twilight and her life points, the black smoke pulling back and away to slowly reveal Twilight in her elf appearance and healer robes lying unconscious on the floor beneath it.
The demon pulled back until only a shadow was connecting it to Twilight, shrieking and cackling, now little more than a shadowy cloud still wearing the crown and necklace. “You fools! You can't defeat me, my powers are unbroken and forever will be!” Strands of darkness slipped in front of it to protect the necklace.
“So that's what we have to break? Too easy.” Rainbow smirked, raising her brow to aim.
“Trailblazer!”
A whirl of fire shot out of Sunset's wand, drilling into the darkness and pushing it apart to reveal a clear view of the necklace.
“Prism Lens Shot!”
The arrow shot straight through the passage, pushing a faint cone of rainbow energy before punching into the middle of the amethyst, leaving a little scratch.
“A little imperfection is all I need.” Rarity raised her rapier high, the tip glowing brilliant white above her.
“Light of Rarendelle! Point Blanc!” A blurring thrust forward and the tip of her rapier slammed right into the scratch, cracking the gemstone before completely shattering it.
The spirit howled and reared back, reaching up. “You dare! You think you've won, but I still have my… crown?” It froze, staring down at the blue-collared ferret it was holding.
“Oh dear, please be careful with Mister Milton.” Fluttershy watched nervously from the sidelines.
“So~rry~, I just can't resist shiny things~!” Pinkie giggled right next to her.
“Y'all looking for this old thing here?” Applejack smirked, lifting her axe before bringing it down on the crown with a thump and a crack, shattering the gemstone set into it.
There was a moment of silence as the spirit simply froze and flickered before it began stretching out and tearing itself apart with with a deafening howl, dissolving first into smoke and then into nothing, leaving only Twilight lying on the ground below where it had been.
“Twilight!” Sunset ran up to her, immediately kneeling down to check her breathing and try to shake her awake, everyone else quickly following to crowd around her.
Twilight groaned and scrunched her eyes shut, trying to roll over. “Just five more minutes…”
“Twilight! You're alright!” Sunset sagged in relief before tensing up and narrowing her eyes. “And you're back to being the healer you apparently never actually were.”
Twilight opened one eye to look at her, smiling slightly. “Shhhh, let's not spoil your victory with those finicky little details. The game needed a happy ending.”
Sunset blinked, then narrowed her eyes again. “Spoil our victory? We could've all died! What do you–”
~~~~~
“–mean agh!” Sunset flailed before falling over backwards, the VR headset tumbling off and away. She blinked and squinted against the sudden realism all around her. All around her her friends were groaning and taking off their headsets, blinking blearily and looking just as confused as she did. Only Twilight was already up, kneeling in front of the gaming system to unplug everything.
“What happened? How did we…?” She shook her head and narrowed her eyes on Twilight. “Explain. What was that all about?”
Twilight blushed and glanced over at her before turning her focus back on the console. “Well, I already had the character and it seemed like the best way to let everyone 'win’ the game. Make an antagonist you can defeat, just some spellwork, artificing and glamours necessary.”
Sunset's eyes widened. “You planned all of that in just an hour?”
Twilight blinked, then giggled. “An hour? No, I had a bit longer than that. My character already had a necklace with a couple of anti-debuff spells on it, including one against mind control spells.
“Wait wait wait…” Pinkie waved both hands. “Wait. You mean you're the one who snapped out of the spell first… because it was magic in the game and you had an item against in-game magic?”
Twilight blushed and nodded. “That's one way to put it, yes.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes. “So you're the one who snapped the rest of us out of it by casting the same spell on us? But why only the four of us first?”
Twilight frowned. “It wasn't an easy spell to break. I needed to store enough magic first. I started with Spike first since he needed to be in on the plan…”
Spike froze in scratching his ear with his hind paw as everyone turned to look at him. “Yeah, I was her minion. What part of that is in any way surprising?”
Twilight chuckled. “Anyway, once I had enough mana for the next three… well, leaving the leaders of the three factions in the dark and trick them into war to make things easier just seemed like a sensible plan at the time.”
Rainbow groaned. “And you got us with the exact same trick we already fell for. Twice.”
“If it helps, it wasn't intentional.” Twilight waved off. “And after that you know the rest. I pretended to be possessed so you could defeat a big bad end boss without having to defeat me. I figured that if game just wanted a happy end, it wasn't going to be too picky on the details.”
Pinkie nodded along happily, then looked towards the console. “So, what are we going to do with it now? Blast it with rainbows?”
“What? No!” Twilight grabbed the boxy gaming system and hugged it closer. “I'm going to research it properly now.”
Sunset frowned. “Twilight, this game could be extremely dangerous.”
“We don't know that though.” Twilight glared at her over the console. “This isn't some overly serious book or cartoon. There's no proof or even much reason why losing the game wouldn't just have us end up out here again. The least we can do is try and confirm that much.”
She set the game down in her lap to gesture with both arms. “It's virtual reality, Sunset. This could be the key to true augmented reality or at least true virtual reality. Even if we never use or publish what we learn, I can't just ignore this opportunity.”
Sunset stared at her for a moment before sighing. “Fine. You can try to figure it out. But you'll let us know whenever you work on it and if we don't hear from you for over an hour while you work on it we're coming over to bail you out, got it?”
Twilight pouted and rolled her eyes. “Yes, mom.”
There was a moment of awkward silence before Rainbow tentatively held up a cheap white plastic wheel. “So… Mariokart?”
